MOUNTAIN DIALOGUES

Fit at 60

Key Speaker: Rajesh Kalra, a digital media pioneer, sports administrator, and an endurance cyclist, who has served on the PM’s Olympic Task Force and various national sports committees.

Chair: Brigadier Ashok Abbey, a veteran mountaineer with over four and a half decades of climbing experience in the Great Ranges.

On 28 August 2025, his 60th birthday, Rajesh Kalra cycled to Umling La in Ladakh, the world's highest motorable road at 19,024 feet. An experienced long-distance cyclist and a trained mountaineer, he shares the challenges of riding at extreme altitude and reflects on endurance, adventure, and pushing personal limits. The feat has been accepted for inclusion in the Limca Book of Records.

(Collaboration: Himalayan Club and the Himalayan Environment Trust)
 

CLEAN AIR DIALOGUES

Addressing Sources of Air Pollution
Tackling Re-suspended Dust from Roads and Construction Sites

Welcome & Introduction: Sarika Panda, Raahgiri Foundation

Moderator: Dr. S.D. Attri, Member (Technical), CAQM                                                          

Discussants: Dr. Niraj Sharma (Former Senior Principal Scientist, CSIR-CRRI) (TBC); Nidhi Madan, Director – Cities and Urban Landscape, Raahgiri Foundation (TBC); Anumita Roychowdhury, Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) (TBC)
This session will examine one of the most significant and visible contributors to particulate pollution in the NCR road and construction dust. Re-suspended dust from vehicular movement, unpaved shoulders, and construction activities accounts for a substantial share of the region’s PM₁₀ and PM₂.₅ load. The discussion will move from macro-level policy to on-ground realities, covering street design, material science, infrastructure management, and enforcement of dust suppression measures.
This is the second discussion in a series of dialogues exploring the multifaceted challenges of air pollution, bringing together perspectives from science, policy, health, and civil society.

(Collaboration: Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM), Raahgiri Foundation)
 

LIVING LANDSCAPES
Conceptualized by Anuj Srivastava

Mangar Bani: The Sacred Native Forest of the Aravalis

Speaker: Sunil Harsana, Researcher, Conservationist

The talk will be followed by a panel discussion
Moderator: Anuj Srivastava, Architect, Writer and Photographer

Discussants:  Amit Yadav, Ex-Civil Servant, Nature lover, Photographer; Neha Sinha, Conservationist and Author of Wild Capital

Nestled in the ancient Aravali hills along the Delhi–Haryana border, Mangar Bani is a sacred forest and archaeological landscape of immense ecological and cultural significance. Sunil Harsana of Mangar has been at the forefront of conservation efforts, with vital community involvement, to save this vital native forest. In this talk, he shares his inspiring and deeply personal journey of conservation — a story of resilience, collective action, and hope for endangered ecosystems everywhere.

(The seventh talk in the Series on Living Landscapes)
 

Moving Away from Nehru: The Consequences

Moderator: Praveen Davar,  Former Army officer, former Member National Commission for Minorities (NCM), columnist and author.

Discussants:  Salman Khurshid, former Minister of External Affairs; Amb.K. P. Fabian, Professor, Symbiosis University and Indian Society of International Law ; Mridula Mukherjee, Indian historian ; Apoorvanand, Professor at the Hindi Department, Faculty of Arts, University of Delhi

The discussion will reflect on Jawaharlal Nehru’s vision for modern India and examine the social, political and institutional shifts that have emerged in the decades since his time. Bringing together scholars and public intellectuals, the discussion will explore the continuing relevance of Nehruvian ideals in contemporary India.

Memory and Magic: Literature as familial and historical testimony

The House of Spirits

On the novel by Isabel Allende, Chilean-American writer

Discussants: H.E. Mr. Juan Angulo, Ambassador of Chile to India, with concurrent accreditation to Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, and the Maldives; Mani Shankar Aiyar, Indian politician, former diplomat, and public intellectual; Dr. Vibha Maurya retired as a professor of Hispanic Studies in the Department of Germanic & Romance Studies, University of Delhi; Omair Ahmad, writer and journalist.; and   Prof. Noorin Khan, Professor and In-Charge, Spanish and Latin American Studies, Jamia Millia Islamia

A story where the magical and the political intertwine. In ‘The House of the Spirits’ by Isabel Allende, we follow the Trueba family across several generations in a country shaped by social and political changes. The novel portrays inequality, power struggles and the rise of a dictatorship. Through magical realism, the everyday coexists with the supernatural: spirits, premonitions and unexplained events create a world where the extraordinary feels natural. 

 

The First Ascent of Shahi Kangri (6934 M) and Silver Peak (6871 M)

Through Grit, Skill and Leadership

Speaker: Brigadier SS Shekhawat, KC, SC, SM, VSM (retd)

Chair: Brigadier Ashok Abbey (retd). Experienced veteran climber. He has climbed, led, and participated in many International, and Indian Mountaineering Expeditions successfully.

An illustrated talk on the never-heard-of or seen-before climb of the enigmatic Shahi Kangri and Silver Peak by an Indian Army expedition, unravelling the majestic mountain’s mystery. Located in the majestic Eastern Karakoram Range lies the massif of Shahi Kangri. Connected to Shahi Kangri by its west ridge is Silver Peak, at 6,871 meters. Silver Peak has to be scaled before an attempt on Shahi Kangri. In June 2022, a team of soldier mountaineers, under the leadership of Brigadier Saurabh Singh Shekhawat, attempted to climb this challenging peak. Despite rapidly changing weather conditions, the crack Aksai Chin Warriors scaled Shahi Kangri and Silver Peak, thus recording a first ascent of this formidable mountain. Undoubtedly, this was one of the finest climbs undertaken by Indian climbers in recent times!

(Collaboration: Himalayan Club and the Himalayan Environment Trust)
 

The Body as Method: Dance Research and Writing in India
Speaker: Dr Sreenath Nair, University of Lincoln, U.K.
Chair: Dr Sudha Gopalakrishnan, Executive Director, IIC-International Research Division

Dr Sreenath Nair is a leading UK academic who earned his PhD from the University of Wales in 2006. His research explores embodied methodologies in Kerala performance, examining corporeal links between medical, martial, spiritual, and performance traditions. He has lectured widely across the USA, UK, Russia, Germany, Prague, Finland, and Sweden, and has held international academic posts and collaborations. He received the Leverhulme Trust International Fellowship and served as Scholar-in-Residence at the Tisch School of the Arts, New York University.

Dance research and writing in India have largely relied on Cultural Studies and postcolonial theories to examine questions of identity, representation, and power. While these frameworks offer valuable critical tools, they remain limited in their ability to address embodied and kinaesthetic practices. Grounded in textual and discursive methods, such approaches struggle to engage with tactile experience, rhythm, breath, muscle memory, and the physical intelligence through which the dancing body itself becomes both method and site of knowledge.
 

                         CANCELLED

A Symphony of Discordant Notes: Navigating Evolving Technologies, Copyright Law, and Age-Old Indian Music

Discussants: Dr. Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Sr. Counsel, Supreme Court of India; Mr. Ameet Datta, Founder, ADP Law Offices; Neel Mason, Counsel, Delhi High Court and Supreme Court of India; Adarsh Ramanujan, Counsel, Delhi High Court and Supreme Court of India; others: TBC

Moderator: Saikrishna Rajagopal, Managing Partner, Saikrishna & Associates

This discussion fosters a cross-disciplinary dialogue involving Indian music and legal experts to deconstruct the friction between modern studio practices and the demands of the evolving copyright framework. By examining the journey of a track from creation to commercialisation, the panel will attempt to identify, simplify, and possibly solve for the complexities of copyright law when dealing with the uniqueness and centuries old heritage of Indian music.

(Collaboration: Saikrishna & Associates)


 

Book Discussion Group

Q In The Garden of Grammar Learn Grammar: Learn Grammar through this Amazing Story!
By Amal Fabian (Konark Publishes, 2025)

Discussants: Mr. Anil Kumar Author of English Textbooks for Schools;   Swati Rai, English language teacher; Neelesh Kulkarni, Author of & In the Footsteps of Rama: travels with the Ramayana’; Amal Fabian, Author of the book
 

LIVING LANDSCAPES
An Ecosystem Approach for Restoration of Riverine floodplains

Speaker: Dr. Faiyaz A. Khudsar, Senior Scientist, Biodiversity Parks Program, CEMDE, University of Delhi

Discussants: Mr R. Srinivas, Former Town and Country Planner, TCPO, MoHUA; Prof. Meenakshi Dhote, Professor, Department of Environment Planning, SPA, New Delhi.

Moderator: Anuj Srivastava, Architect, Writer and Photographer

Rivers have supported human civilization for centuries and continue to shape our lives. Urban river ecosystems suffer from unplanned development, floodplain encroachment, and sewage discharge, turning many rivers into open sewers. Restoration efforts now prioritize ecosystem approaches, such as the Yamuna Bio-diversity Park. Dr. Faiyaz Khudsar leads this initiative, sharing his expertise in treating rivers as living landscapes.

(The sixth talk in the Series on Living Landscapes)